His Idea of Me
by sunnyontheheights
Summary: She belonged to his brother. Before this day, he despised the thought of sharing anything with Thor. Yet now the same rage burns in both their hearts. The same grief, the same thirst for revenge. Trust has fallen by the wayside. But now, something else ties them... something that also has the power to drive them apart for good.
1. The Opposite of You

**I'll just start by saying, I really do ship ThorxJane, but for some reason I keep having these dreams about _these _two characters falling in love, and I just love it so I'm going to post it. :) I don't know if this will be a one-shot or a full-blown story, I'm still thinking. Tell me what you think, and I may add more if it's well-received. I'm trying to balance this with my other Loki story, Shades of Red. **

**Enjoy. Feedback and reviews much appreciated. **

* * *

_"Once I called you brother._

_Once I thought the chance to make you laugh_

_Was all I ever wanted…"_

_—The Prince of Egypt_

* * *

Loki watched Thor tuck the blanket around Jane's fragile shoulders, and smirked to himself at the absurd display of tenderness from a brute. The ship hummed beneath them as they drifted through the wreckage of Svartalheim. On any other night, Loki might have peered over the edge to admire the sheer desolation of this rugged world; the raw chaos still lingering in the darkness sent a tingle through his veins. But tonight, a darker energy hummed in his blood. He sat beside the steering console, his bound hands guiding the ship with practiced skill through the deadly debris littering the planet.

He let his eyes trail over Jane's face. Not even in sleep did the little mortal seem to relax. The smooth contours of her face pulled together in a frown, the hair trailing over her pale cheek. She looked far too small to be here, in this world. Far too vulnerable.

And yet she housed the most destructive power known to the Nine Realms.

"What I could do with the power that flows through those veins," he murmured.

Thor shot him an uncharacteristically grave look. "It would consume you."

Loki smirked at his brother, enjoying the protective glint in the elder god's eye when he watched the young woman sleep.

"She's holding up all right… for now."

Thor's deep voice returned with conviction. "She's strong in ways you'd never even know."

Loki pressed his lips together and shook his head. He almost pitied the fool. "Say goodbye."

"Not this day."

Loki got to his feet, riling up his brother more out of habit and boredom than any real malice. "This day, the next, a hundred years. It's nothing. It's a heartbeat. You'll never be ready. The only woman whose love you prized will be snatched from you—"

"And will that satisfy you?" Thor snapped.

"Satisfaction's not in my nature."

"Surrender is not in mine." Thor held his gaze with a cold stare, attempting to cow him into submission. The likeness to their—Thor's—father was uncanny. Loki tilted his head.

"Son of Odin—"

"No, not just of Odin!" Thor stood, pent-up rage and grief coloring his face. "You think you alone loved mother? You had her tricks but I had her trust."

A pain like a dagger lanced through Loki's chest. He stepped forward. "Trust?" he hissed. "Was that her last expression? _Trust? _When you let her _die?"_

"What help were you in her cell?" Thor taunted.

"Who put me there?" Loki snarled. _"Who put me there?"_

Thor lunged, catching Loki by the shoulders and slamming him back into the ship's siding. "You know damn well, you know _damn _well who!"

The fist was there, just inches from his face, and Loki braced himself for the blow. Thor's furious blue eyes ticked between his, and he could see the struggle there. But the higher road—his brother _always _took the higher road—won out.

He lowered his arm. His breath came ragged.

"She wouldn't want us to fight."

The brokenness of Thor's voice made Loki's own defenses slacken. He pushed himself up off the wall. For the most fleeting of moments, he could almost see their mother's face, drawn with disapproval over her boys' antics, though the love she could never hide still burned fiercely behind her eyes.

"Well," he muttered, just a hint of a smile tipping his lips. "She wouldn't exactly be shocked."

Thor must have felt it too, for his pained expression eased slightly, a humorless smile on the corner of his mouth.

"I wish I could trust you," he murmured. To Loki's surprise, the longing in his voice was real. Thor stepped back, his eyes still on his, before slowly turning away, back to Jane. Loki watched him settle himself across from his lady. Then he leaned forward, the low intensity of his voice almost too soft for Thor to hear.

"Trust my rage."

Thor does hear. He turns, almost imperceptibly, and his eyes briefly brush his brother's. Then he leans back against bench a few feet from Jane, his hammer resting across his knees, and closes his eyes. After a few moments, his brother's breathing evens, and all goes still on the little craft.

Loki's gaze narrows. In all the years he'd known Thor, the bloke always knew how to knock him down a notch. It was beyond insulting—to fall asleep in his presence with his lady lying vulnerable between them. As if Loki posed no threat, helpless and cuffed as he was. Resentment burned within him. Oh, he posed far more a threat than Thor would ever know. Metal bonds or not, Loki had enough magic to cross the pod, slit his brother's throat with a Jötunn ice blade and leap away into the wilds of Svartalheim before Heimdall could even bat his golden eyes.

But no. He was here for a purpose. As much as he despised Thor, he would have to put aside his bitterness until he could extract revenge on the beast who took his mother.

He let his eyes fall back to his brother lying there, a slight pucker between his blonde brows. An odd sense of mutual pain, of something he shared with this hammer-toting oaf he once called kin, rose in his chest.

_Their _mother.

"He loves you, you know."

Loki looked up, startled to hear Jane speak. The young mortal lay where Thor had left her, curled under the blanket with her hair wind-tossed over her face, yet her brown eyes were open, fixed on him.

He turned toward her. "What?"

"He might not show it," Jane murmured, and he wondered if she fully knew what she was saying. Her voice was faint, on the borders of sleep. "Not always," she continued. "But he does. He's adamant about the fact that you're still his brother, no matter what you did. No matter how much you push him away."

Loki smiled down at her, a cold sort of smile that would make most Aesir—let alone humans—scuttle away in fear. Jane was either too tired, or too thick, to fully appreciate the effect.

"And I suppose you would be an expert on Thor's love."

Her dark eyes slid away from his, the hint of a flush tinting her cheeks. He found his own eyes drawn to the color.

"I'm not, actually," she mumbled, almost too quiet for him to hear.

"Oh?" He pushed himself off from his resting place on the wall and sauntered toward her, his steps slow and deliberate. She didn't shrink back, only watched his approach with veiled eyes.

He leaned against the ship side an arm's length from her and peered down. "Is my brother not madly in love with you?"

He saw her delicate throat bob in a nervous swallow. Was it his proximity? The fact that Thor lay unawares too far away from her reach? He leaned forward, expecting to see fear cross her features. But her eyes flicked away from his, toward his brother—and there was confusion there. He frowned at that.

"Thor loves the idea of me," she whispered. A slight shrug of her shoulder made the blanket slip down over her arm. "I guess he's never had a woman who hasn't fallen head over heels for his image: legendary warrior, charming prince of Asgard."

Loki chuckled darkly. "And many have fallen indeed. I suppose you'll insist you're different from the hopeless wenches who follow doe-eyed at his heels? Are you not also in love with the idea of my brother?"

Silence fell between them a moment. Jane's eyes dropped from his, and Loki nodded in satisfaction that he'd won the brief battle of wills. He looked away, out over the desolate landscape.

"I suppose I am," Jane whispered.

Loki turned back to her in surprise.

Jane laughed softly to herself and continued, "What sane human girl wouldn't be? A tall handsome blonde prince falls out of the sky into my lap, bumbling around with no idea how to so much as work a coffee maker." A private kind of smile lit her dark eyes, a secret joy Loki found himself wishing he could be privy to. "It was too endearing not to fall for."

He stared at her for a moment. Then he arced an eyebrow. "So you admit you do not love my brother."

She yawned, unaware of the dark intensity of his scrutiny. "I love him. But perhaps not in the way… he wants." Her eyes closed in a slow, tired flutter. She sighed. "I suppose we're both in love with the ideas we've constructed of the other."

Loki watched her a moment, watched the cinnamon hair skiff across her cheekbones in the gentle wind. The soft rise and fall of her chest as she nuzzles deeper into the cushioned bench. He smirked at how easily she again succumbed to sleep.

He remained at her side, for reasons he couldn't describe why, and let his gaze wander back to Thor's lightly snoring form. His brother's hands remained curled around the handle of his hammer, as if he so much as sensed an approach from Loki he'd be ready to leap up with complete alertness. Loki allowed himself a grim smile while he watched his brother slumber.

Thor claimed not to trust him. But his desperation showed otherwise. Thor fell back on the only alliance he knew—he couldn't help it. Loki shook his head with a low sigh. He truly was the fool he'd always took him for.

"The opposite of you, I think."

Loki blinked, startled, and looked down at Jane. He'd thought her asleep. But when he turned he found her sleepy brown eyes watching him, half-lidded.

"What?"

She let her eyes drift closed again, curling tighter into her makeshift ball with a sigh. "I'm the opposite of you," she murmured. "You hate idea of having a brother."

He chuckled under his breath. "That's the truth."

Jane yawned, and the little sound she made was strangely endearing.

"Mm, you hate the idea of him," she murmured. "But you love Thor."

Loki froze. He stared down at her, his mouth snapping open to retort, to flay her with words at her ignorant statement, but her soft breathing stilled him. She'd truly fallen asleep.

He sat there beside her, unable to take his eyes from her small form. And for the first time in a long, long time, Loki Laufeyson was unsure of his own thoughts.

An immeasurable moment passed. Then, ever so slowly, Loki reached out and tucked the blanket up over her shoulders. Jane sighed in contentment, and the softest ghost of a smile touched her lips. He couldn't pull his gaze from it.

And so the little ship traveled through the wreckage, two passengers oblivious to the dark world around them, while the last struggled with a world of bewilderment within himself.


	2. I Didn't Do It For Him

Jane dreamed she was back in Puente Antiguo.

Not with Erik and Darcy, searching for an Einstein Rosen bridge. Not with Thor, fumbling along behind him in a dazed mix of intrigue and apprehension while he charged into S.H.I.E.L.D. to liberate her life's work.

Yet she wasn't by herself, either.

She stood on a small veranda, overlooking a wide backyard covered in sun-browned golden grass. A cheap playground complete with chain swings and a plastic blue slide stood cock-eyed along the edge of a wooden fence. The hot July breeze whisked her hair back from her face, and she took another step into the sunshine.

She'd never set foot in this place before, she knew, but the house, the yard, the playground all glowed with a familiarity that made her feel warm inside.

Two children, a few years apart with the oldest no more than six, sat playing in the grass. The girl's mousy brown hair was knitted back in two French braids, framing her pale round face. She had Jane's almond brown eyes, her mouth curved in a mischievous grin that shot a start of recognition through her. The older little boy had his back to her, fiddling with something in the dirt. His messy bob of hair was jet black, the skin on the back of his neck as pale as his sister's.

The girl poked the boy in the knee and gave him a wider version of that cheeky smile. She grinned down at her hands, which hovered a few inches apart above her lap, palms facing inward. A spark of blue energy surged between them, brightening to a fiery purple glow that popped and fizzled against her fingers.

Jane caught her breath.

The boy laughed and reached forward to tug the little girl's braid, then scooted back to his feet and turned to Jane. Electric blue eyes met hers, and he beamed.

"Mom, look what I caught!"

_Mom. _Jane stared as the boy skipped toward her, cradling something in his hands. He had her nose, she realized, and her eyes. Not the same color, granted, but those were definitely her eyes looking back at her. His face was narrower than the girl's, and paler than Jane's, but the toothy smile he gifted her with made Jane think of pictures of herself at that age.

"Look! Isn't he a beauty?"

The boy skidded to a stop in front of her, holding up the prize in his hands. Jane looked down to see what he presented her, and jumped in surprise.

A tiny, gleaming black snake lay curled in his palm, scales glittering in the harsh New Mexican sun. Its tongue flicked out, shivering on the air, and thousand colors seemed to shimmer within those ebony coils.

She heard herself laugh, and before she knew what she was doing she reached forward and ruffled the child's silken hair.

"Go put it back where you found it," she said.

"But _Mom…"_

"Snakes belong in the wild," Jane heard herself saying. "Not under kitchen tables for your mother to find like _last _time, or in your sister's lunchbox." She pinched the boy's cheek. "You're just like your father."

"What about me?" said a voice. Arms encircled her from behind, tender in their strength, and pulled her back against a firm chest. "Do what your mother tells you, Erik."

_Erik, _Jane thought. _Did I name my son after him?_

She heard herself speaking again, as if she didn't have control over her own tongue. "Frigga, go inside and wash that dirt off your hands before dinner."

"Yes, Mama." The little girl pushed herself up off the grass and skipped past Jane into the house.

_Frigga? _A pang shot through her at the name of the kind, strong woman who'd died protecting her. But Jane wondered why she had named her daughter after Thor's mother.

The arms tightened around her while these thoughts swirled in her head, and she felt someone tall bend to rest their chin atop her shoulder. "How is your research coming?" hummed a voice in her ear, one that wasn't Thor's, but sent a foreign kind of shiver through her. "I haven't seen you all day."

Her research? If this was in the future, she still had time to work on new scientific discoveries? The thought brought a smile to her face. She turned to the man behind her.

"Sorry about that," she heard herself murmur. "Let me make it up to you."

The Jane of the dream stretched up on her toes to kiss him, and somewhere in the back of her mind the real Jane registered that the feel of his lips definitely wasn't Thor's, nor was the roguish chuckle that followed.

"I like the sound of that," replied the voice that suddenly—and her stomach dropped to her knees—she could finally place.

She jerked back from him. Loki stared down at her, ice-blue eyes crinkled with mirth with a devilish smirk on his face.

Jane awoke with a start.

For a few terrifying seconds, she didn't know where she was. The sky hung dark and brooding above her, deep sienna roiling as if they hailed a storm. Sharp, jagged shadows jut up into the darkness, a broken ruin of whatever kingdom had once thrived here. Jane caught her breath, her heart hammering in her chest in the aftermath of the dream. She sat up slowly, and her eyes connected with a horribly familiar pair of blue ones across the skiff.

Loki stood where she'd last seen him, steering the ship with expert—though bound—hands through the wreckage. Thor sat beside him on the bench, rubbing his own eyes as if he'd just woken up. The taller prince met her frightened gaze and arced an eyebrow at her in characteristic mockery. But he said nothing.

Jane was about to open her mouth to ask them where they were, but a sharp tug in the center of her chest made her breath hitch. She felt the irrepressible urge to turn. Something… something dark and enthralling… filled her veins in a fierce, slow burn. A shiver rattled her bones. She blinked. The world winked into sudden clarity.

Darkness was coming. She could feel it, rumbling over the land, calling to her. It beckoned her soul to draw nearer, to approach and let the shadows take her, to give herself up. The sensation of duty to answer the call was almost overpowering.

"Jane?" Thor's voice came from far away. But Jane's ears were not for him.

"Malekith," she breathed, a whisper of longing not her own.

Thor's hand on her arm broke her from the trance. She looked up into his concerned face and a thrill of fear raced through her.

"Thor," she rasped. "I… I can feel him." She swallowed, hard. "He's close."

The warrior's brow furrowed, but he leaned forward to press a reassuring kiss to her brow. It did nothing to lessen the knot of fear in her stomach.

"It's almost over, Jane," he murmured. "Stay strong."

Jane pressed her lips together and tried to give him a nod, but her whole body was shaking too much for it to make any noticeable difference. Loki guided the craft to a halt and she let Thor help her down to the cold black sand. It sank beneath her feet in a sickening way, more like rubble or ash than earth.

Loki led the way wordlessly to the crest of a hill, and looked down over the valley beyond. By the stiffening of his shoulders, and the anticipatory surge of the aether within her, Jane knew exactly who lay over the rise.

"Are you ready?" Thor asked her when they came to Loki's side.

Jane looked out over the valley toward the ragged black ship where Malekith and a band of shadow-clad Dark Elves stood waiting. Her mouth felt too dry to reply.

"_I _am," Loki replied. Jane and Thor both glanced at him, but his gaze was on hers, a smirk painting his gaunt face. She heard Thor sigh in irritation behind her.

Loki rose from his predatory crouch, and Thor straightened with him. They walked a few paces in front of Jane, now easily visible to the otherworldly creatures at the base of the hill. Jane tried to take a step forward, but Loki turned his head just slightly and shot her a pointed look. She stilled. Unless she imagined it, she glimpsed a protective glint in his eye she'd never seen before.

"You know," he muttered to his brother. "This plan of yours is going to get us killed."

"Yes, possibly," Thor retorted. Loki turned to him and lifted his shackled hands to fill the air between them. Thor just looked at them.

"You still don't trust me, brother?" A hard smile returns to those eyes, that hint of a devil in the blue.

Thor looked at him, long and hard. "Would you?"

The smile remained. A heartbeat later, Thor sighed and reached forward to unlock the metal cuffs around his little brother's wrists. Loki beamed at him, and Thor scowled in return while the younger prince rubbed his wrists with exaggerated care. They both of them turn to look out over the dark landscape below.

Then came the voice—the darker voice—that caught Jane's breath in her throat.

"No, I wouldn't."

Loki struck like an adder. He whirled and drove a fist into Thor's gut, slamming him backward. Jane screamed when she saw the blood glinting off a knife in his hand. Thor bellowed in pain, but Loki was already shoving him off the cliff. The shock of blond hair disappeared over the ledge. Loki leaped after him.

"Thor!' Jane yelped, lunging after them both. But Loki was far swifter than she. Thor rolled to a stop at the bottom of the hill, curling inward on himself in agony. Loki strode forward, a sadistic snarl curling his lips.

"You really think I cared about Frigga? About any of you?"

He delivered a brutal kick to Thor's side. Thor jerked back with a grunt. Jane broke into a sprint. Malekith was approaching the one-sided duel, a giant of an elf and more warriors hard on his heels.

"No," she gasped.

"All I ever wanted was you and Odin dead at my feet!"

Thor struggled to lift his hand, to reach for _Mjolnir_. But Loki was faster. He leaped forward and slashed down with the bloodied blade. Thor and Jane's screams filled the air in unison. Thor's hand severed dropped to the ground.

Jane lurched to a stop beside his writhing form and fell to her knees, her own hands shaking. _Thor, Thor, Thor… _She was too numb to think of what to do.

A rough arm closed over her waist, jerking her to her feet. Jane gasped and struggled against Loki, cursing how feeble she was against the god's strength. He yanked her up so her feet left the ground, one hand splayed over her stomach, pinning her to his chest.

"Malekith!" he roared, his voice reverberating against her back loud enough that she winced. Jane looked up in horror to see the Dark Elf watching them with an inscrutable expression. She wriggled harder in Loki's grip.

_"Stop fighting me,"_ came an almost inaudible whisper against her hair. Jane stilled. The words held no malice, only a vital sense of urgency.

"I am Loki, of Jotunheim," he went on in his booming voice. "And I bring you a gift."

Jane squeaked in terror when he tossed her to the ground, an arm's length from the creature's feet. She forced herself to meet Malekith's gaze on her hands and knees. The elf regarded her, a darkness in his eyes that made her blood run cold. Then he looked back at Loki, an unspoken question in his stare.

"I only ask one thing in return," the prince declared with a sneer. "A good seat from which to watch Asgard burn."

_No, _Jane cried out with every fiber of her being.

Malekith watched him for a moment more, and the huge monster behind him leaned forward to mutter in his ear, words in a guttural language she couldn't understand.

Malekith nodded, then turned and strode past Jane to where Thor lay moaning on the ground. He kicked him with a cruel foot to roll him over. Jane cringed.

"Look at me," the elf commanded. Thor glared in defiance up into his eyes, and Jane felt at least a tiny spark of pride. But all triumph turned straight to cold fear when Malekith turned toward her once again. He lifted a hand.

Her feet left the ground. Jane's arms flew out to catch herself, but there was nothing for her. The darkness returned in full force, tugging at her insides, storming against her skin, searching for a way to get to its master. The world vanished in a flash of black.

_The Earth, spinning on its pale blue axis, helpless and vulnerable before the onslaught of darkness. Red creeps into the corners of her vision. The stars turn crimson. The sea turns to blood. Every continent passes into shadow, the aether racing outward throughout the galaxy, the universe, destroying, consuming…_

Jane gasped when she felt the first of it leave her. Her eyes burned as it streamed from them, her mouth, her nose, from beneath her fingertips. She could feel it clawing up her throat, burning and tearing as it went. Her mouth opened in a silent scream.

And then it was over. The last of the vile aether slipped from her body, and Malekith let her slump to the ground. She couldn't bring herself to rise.

_It's over, _she thought. _It's all over. I can't bear to watch them kill Thor. Let them kill me first. Let it all be done…_

She froze when she heard Thor's voice, entirely different from the pain-racked groaning moments before.

"Loki!" he bellowed. _"Now!"_

Jane lifted her face from the ground. Loki waved a hand and Thor's arm materialized once again, whole and unmarred. Her mouth fell open. Thor raised his hand and summoned _Mjolnir_ before Malekith could even register the false betrayal. The hammer crackled with energy, lightning coalescing the sky above.

Loki spun and raced for Jane, and she barely had time to know fear before he threw himself over her, shielding her from _Mjolnir's _destructive blast.

The air screamed with explosions for a full half-minute, and Jane clapped her hands over her ears. Then everything stilled. All she could hear was her heart beating, and Loki breathing raggedly against the back of her neck.

She opened her eyes. Dust filled the air. Thor stood panting, _Mjolnir _in hand, looking around with wary eyes. Loki rolled off Jane and tugged her to her feet. The haze cleared enough for her to see Malekith and his brute standing tall amidst the drifting flakes of bloodred aether.

Then the Dark Elf stretched out his arms. As if called, the aether surged into him, and he threw back his head with a triumphant roar as the darkness rushed into ever crevice of his armor, his mouth, his eyes. His eyes snapped open. They gleamed with a darkness so intense Jane couldn't breathe.

A heartbeat passed. Then he turned with a jerk of his head toward his followers, and headed for the ship.

The monsters advanced on them. Thor started in on them immediately, swinging his hammer with abandon. Elves flew left and right. The dark giant glanced at Jane, pulled an object from its belt and threw it in her direction. She didn't know what it was, but she heard Loki's sharp intake of breath. He whirled and thrust her out of the way.

The bomb exploded midair, a dark roiling mass of black that sucked in all that came close. Jane shrieked when she saw the vacuum catch hold of Loki. He tried to lunge forward but the raging pull lifted him into the air, arms flailing, armor, dagger and all. His blue eyes widened, and for a fraction of an instant, Jane saw a flash of resignation in them. Her breath stopped.

Thor blasted out of nowhere, snatching Loki from the bomb's path and slamming him back to the ground. Dust exploded, and Jane shielded her eyes, straining to see if they were all right.

The brothers' silhouettes loomed once again out of the haze, and she breathed a sigh of relief—only to get hit like a freight train by the staggering realization. Her wide eyes met Loki's, to find him searching her face with an uncertain gaze of his own.

_He was willing to die for me._

The thudding whir of Thor's hammer snapped her back to the moment. Malekith's ship was rising, rippling as cloaking panels plunged the craft into invisibility. Thor shot off from the ground like a rocket, straight for the ship's siding. Jane saw the shields sizzle to life, and opened her mouth to cry out a warning—too late.

Thor ricocheted off the shield with a pained grunt and smashed back into the ground, only to face the rapid approaching giant of a dark elf. The monster tore into the Asgardian, heavy blows raining down until one harsh uppercut sent Thor flying back into the stonefields.

Loki's low voice cut her off before she could scream again. "Get back, Jane."

Jane turned to see four ghost-like warriors in skeletal masks encircling the other prince. She scrambled back, but they had no eyes for her.

Then Loki moved. Jane had seen Thor fight before, but his brother's combat style was as polar opposite as a bear and a panther. Loki didn't just fight—he _danced. _Jane watched open-mouthed as he spun and twirled, the silver dagger flashing in the muted light, every movement extracting a howl of pain from the enemy. Pure, feral glee blazed in his blue eyes, a primal fire that made her stomach jump in a strange way. Three of the dark elves fell within seconds, but the fourth struck him in the ribcage with the weapon he held. Loki snarled and wrenched it from its grip, then spun him around and slashed the blade across its throat. The elf twitched for a moment, and Loki hurled him to the ground, then looked up. Jane followed his gaze.

Thor lay on his back, blood pouring from a gash in his forehead while the brute rained down blow after blow. Jane moved without thinking. She lunged forward to go to him, but gave an involuntary yelp when Loki's hard grip on her elbow yanked her back.

_"Stay _put," he hissed, fingers biting into her arm. She turned to see cold blue eyes boring into hers, just inches away. Loki pushed her back and turned to his brother. He stooped, retrieved the jagged halberd from the fallen dark elf, and approached the monster.

Jane watched his retreating form, and then—despite everything in her screaming for her to follow his orders and stay back—she stumbled after him.

Thor groaned in pain, but raised his head stubbornly off the ground to stare his attacker in the eye. The brute raised his fist for another blow.

Loki sprang. The beast snarled in pain, back arcing with the halberd protruding from its chest. He turned slowly, a low rumble in its throat. Then he seized Loki by the shoulders and slammed him up onto the bloodied spear.

_"NO!" _Thor roared.

Loki stared at the man in apparent shock, but Jane caught the flash of movement of his hands at the dark elf's belt. With one brutal twist, the beast ripped Loki off the spear and flung him away. He landed hard on his back with a gasp of pain. The monster advanced on him.

Loki lifted his head, his whole frame shaking in agony, but a triumphant light burned in his eyes. "See you in hell, monster."

A light flashed in scarlet alarm at the creature's belt. It looked down, then scrambled to unclasp the grenade Loki had activated. Not fast enough.

The explosion blistered through the air, a howling whirlwind of negative energy. The monster's howl of agony fizzled out in one bloodcurdling jerk, its arms and legs and torso imploding on themselves. Fire swirled about its writhing form, compacting the carnage smaller and smaller until the thing disappeared altogether.

Thor lurched to his feet and sprinted for his brother.

"No!" he rasped, pulling Loki up onto his lap. "No, no, no…"

Loki's breath came in ragged heaves. Thor's face contorted as if he felt the pain just as strong. "Ah, you fool. You didn't listen!"

"I know," Loki gasped. "I'm a fool." His voice cracked, his face screwing up. "I'm a fool."

Thor clutched his face with one hand. "Stay with me," he demanded. "Okay?"

"I'm sorry," Loki spluttered. His skin was turning gray, ridges appearing on his high cheekbones. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's all right," Thor said, his voice broken. "I'll tell father what you did here today."

Loki looked up at him with a strange expression. One that made Jane's heart twist like she had a spear through her own chest.

"I didn't do it for him," he whispered. Then he closed his eyes.

Thor stared at him, stricken, for a second, and then a gut-wrenching cry tore across the wasteland. Grief unspeakable roared in Jane's ears, and all she could do was watch as Thor gathered his fallen brother to his chest.

Finally he lifted his gaze to meet hers, so much pain and rage it made his huge frame shake. Jane wished she could inject some strength into her gaze, to help him restore some of his own, but she had no strength left to draw from. Thor seemed to read that in her eyes, and he bowed his head over the still form of his brother. Then, slowly, he stood.

"Come, Jane," he said, voice ragged and deadly. "We go to finish this."


End file.
